Philosophy Commons^™

[Introduction To] The Philosophy Of Taylor Swift, Lindsay Brainard, Ryan W. Davis, Jess Flanigan

Bookshelf

Edited by Lindsay Brainard, Ryan W. Davis, and Jessica Flanigan

• Offers the first book-length philosophical analysis focused exclusively on Taylor Swift's songwriting
• Demonstrates innovative methodologies for treating popular music as a site of rigorous philosophical inquiry
• Features essays by a diverse group of leading philosophers across multiple subfields
• Reveals new interpretive insights for both scholars and Swifties, deepening understanding of themes such as love, morality, and meaning

The Ache Of Modernism: Death, Affect, And Intersubjectivity In Twentieth-Century American Literature, Alex Gergely

Theses and Dissertations--English

This dissertation suggests that we can locate, describe, and experience death as an aesthetic mood called the ache of modernism. The ache is an atmosphere found in twentieth-century literature that goes beyond simply “positive” or “negative” feeling and encourages audiences to come to an affective and existential relationship with their mortality. As an intersubjective mood deriving from an attunement on death, it illuminates the historical and philosophical moment of many twentieth-century authors while clarifying their texts’ continued resonance today. This project therefore draws on the thought of major philosophers like Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, …

Liturgical Aesthetics: A Case For Beauty In The Church, Charlotte Ostric

Philosophy Student Projects

This paper is intended to challenge the contemporary church in America to consider the ways it can reflect beauty in liturgical practices and the importance of beauty in an ecclesial setting. It dispels notions such as "aesthetic autonomy" and offers a method of "fittingness" for churches and ecclesial settings to inform their own liturgical practices.

Reflections On Jianrong Liao’S Recent Book, Arnold Berleant’S Environmental Aesthetics And Everyday Aesthetics, Nie Chunhua

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The American Lowrider As A Form Of Art, Chad Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper argues that lowriders, a style of heavily customized vehicle deeply rooted in Chicano culture, ought to be recognized as a legitimate American art form. After establishing the historical and cultural background of lowriders, this paper identifies a cluster of essential aesthetic features which define lowriders, such as lowered suspension, custom wheels, elaborate paintwork, and opulent interiors. Several paradigmatic lowriders exhibiting these features are then examined against the background of various philosophical definitions of art. The analysis demonstrates that lowriders with their elaborate body modifications and paintwork do align with the essentialist views such as Clive Bell’s formalism and …

On The Non-Reductive Analogical Language Of Chemistry: Visualizing Chemistry As An Aesthetic Practice, Demetrio Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, I will consider in detail the analogical language of chemistry by identifying metaphysical assumptions and interpretations embedded in the thinking and communication of chemistry. I will explain the epistemological function and meaning of chemical symbolism and how its artistic design presents a unique opportunity to reflect about the philosophical aesthetic connections between chemistry and the humanities. I will thus consider the creative aspects of chemistry and suggest that the merging between art and science yields practical wisdom. My goal is to argue in favor of the idea of complementarity which suggests that scientific models best develop from …

Art, Trauma, And The Aesthetics Of Paul Celan, Tania L. Abramson, Paul R. Abramson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

On Incomprehensibility, Nicholas Romanos

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Principles Of Islamic Moral Philosophy And The Possibility Of Re-Conceptualizing Classical Islamic Aesthetics Of Architecture, Muhammad Feteha

Theses and Dissertations

This study is primarily concerned with the intersection of the moral and aesthetic theories of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111). Al-Ghazālī’s theory of aesthetics has been the subject of thorough scholarly investigations and diverse interpretations in the field of Islamic art history since the 1940s. This thesis critiques the premises upon which the use of al-Ghazālī’s writings in studies of Islamic art and architecture were built. It suggests that they lead to what could be described as “the contradiction of unethical beauty.” To overcome this contradiction, it offers a comprehensive interpretation of al-Ghazālī’s aesthetics through analyzing the concept ḥusn in …

Reading, Rending, And Queering The Web Of Story With The Lenses Of “Con-Creation” And Process Theology, Cameron Bourquein, Nick Polk

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

“Sub-creation” within Tolkien’s narrative and extra-narrative works is routinely exhibited not as monolithic but rather as (literally and figuratively) polyphonic. In this joint paper Bourquein proposes that the Legendarium can be read through the lens of “con-creation” (total, continuous, collective, creative activity) both internally (as events in the Secondary World) and externally (as both a text and a pseudohistory in the Primary World). This approach levels the playing field between all actors in—and readers of—“The Drama,” providing a queer approach to interpretive-creative activity when compared to “orthodox” doctrines of creation. Polk further argues that con-creation resonates with process theologies of …

01. Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery (Novel - Ebook), Matthew Lipman

Middle School Curriculum

One day Harry finds himself giving the wrong answer in science class and begins to wonder where he has gone wrong. This reflection soon involves his classmates, who begin to think together about the nature of thinking, inquiry and knowledge. With the help of their teacher, Harry and his classmates discover rules of formal and informal logic, relational logic and hypothetical thinking—-not as ends in themselves, but as tools in helping them understand themselves and their world. Some of the ideas they begin to explore this way include education, mind, rights, religion, art, cause and effect, causes and reasons, and …

Walk In The Woods (2023) By Nikki Grimes, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

An unnamed Black boy walks in the woods near his home a week after his father’s funeral. Because the boy knows how to be mindful in nature—to move slowly, step carefully, and pay close attention—he becomes more connected to the woods and the creatures in it. Rediscovering is his father’s legacy of ecstatic, aesthetic reverence for nature begins to assuage the boy's anger-tinged grief.

How Beautiful (2021) By Antonella Capetti, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

The question of what is and isn’t beautiful occurs to the caterpillar in this elaborate picture book when a giant Unknown Thing (human) lifts him out of his familiar leaf bed world and tells him, “You’re so beautiful.” The caterpillar wonders, “But what does beautiful mean?” The question leads him on a day-long trek through the forest, where other animals offer a variety of perplexing answers.

Sidewalk Flowers (2015) By Jonarno Lawson, Samantha Piede

Picture Books

JonArno Lawson's Sidewalk Flowers centers on a little girl accompanying her father on a morning walk across a grey landscape. On the way, she spots dandelions sprouting out of the pavement. The protagonist's attention to this tiny, beautiful detail catalyzes her expanding appreciation for the rest of her environment, spurring her to notice beauty in unexpected places. This review suggests that Sidewalk Flowers richly introduces children to the philosophical theme of attention not with words, but with color.

Editorial, Yuriko Saito

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Notices, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Inner Form Of Style: On Heinrich Wölfflin’S “Tactical” Formalism, Rémi Mermet

Artl@s Bulletin

In this article, I examine the enduring relevance of Heinrich Wölfflin’s approach to style, in light of the renewed interest in it among “postformalist” art historians. By delving into the theoretical foundations of the Principles of Art History, I explore Wölfflin’s Goethean interpretation of Kantian epistemology, revealing a conception of style characterized by its dynamic and symbolic “inner form” rather than mere static formalism. This analysis not only highlights affinities with Max Weber’s thought but also uncovers a previously overlooked connection to Wilhelm von Humboldt, offering valuable insights for current discussions on style.

Dans cet article, j’étudie la pertinence …

Grounded Aesthetics: Pedagogy For A Post-Truth Era, Becca Cragin

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

With the rise of cultural studies, positivism and formalism fell out of favor. But in recent years, altered versions of these methodologies have been suggested as solutions to the deficiencies of the ideological approach dominating the field. Where the ideological approach looks at the content of texts to determine their meaning, the aesthetic approach adopted by media scholars in recent years returns to the close textual readings of formalism (while abandoning its assertion that meaning resides in the text alone). Similarly, where the ideological approach tends to use textual analysis devoid of sociological empiricism, the use of “big data” in …

Sentimental Empiricism: Politics, Philosophy, And Criticism In Postwar France, Davide Panagia

Politics

Sentimental Empiricism reconsiders the legacy of eighteenth and nineteenth century empiricism and moral sentimentalism for the intellectual formation of the generation of postwar French thinkers whose work came to dominate Anglophone conversations across the humanities under the guise of “French theory.” Panagia’s book first shows what was missed in the reception of this literature in the Anglophone academy by attending to how France’s pedagogical milieu plays out church and state relations in the form of educational debates around reading practices, the aesthetics of mimesis, French imperialism, and republican universalism. Panagia then shows how such thinkers as Jean Wahl, Simone de …

Sculpting Aesthetic Experiences Through Autistic Indigenous Knowledge, Manuel A. Sánchez Peña

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

The intersection between the autistic mind and the experience of aesthetic elements sculpts a distinct lens through which individuals could explain and appreciate the human experience. Differences between neurotypicals and autistics in terms of sensory experience, cognition and communication, combined with knowledge produced by the Philosophy, Psychology, and Anthropology fields in Aesthetics permit the application of the Neurodiversity Paradigm as a source to explain the perception of aesthetics in the collective. The complexity of these experiences in autistic people not only expands deeper comprehension on aesthetic experiences and all its relativisms, but also illustrates neurodiversity as a form of cultural …

University Sound, Maxwell Teodor Barton

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This civic engagement project (CEP) is varied in its explorations. Philosophically, this paper uses Waltonian aesthetics to critique the concept of "soundscape.". Practically, this paper examines and details my methods for bringing awareness about soundscapes (as both worthy of aesthetic and ethical consideration) to the community of Missoula, Montana. Utilizing a scaffold of Anglo-American analytic aesthetics, philosophy of animals, and environmental aesthetics, I show (1) that the University of Montana soundscape has been neglected in many serious ways (2) why it should be considered as an aesthetic object worthy of aesthetic engagement and (3) how to engage with it in …

The Daughters Of La Malinche: A Heideggerian Analysis Of The Pazian Archetypal Masks Portrayed In Art, At-Ziry Aileen Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, I present a Heideggerian phenomenological analysis of the Pazian archetypal masks present in The Labyrinth of Solitude, such as El Macho, La Llorona, La Mala Mujer, La Chingada, and La Malinche, and how these masks are represented and depicted by women in art. I analyze the authentic or inauthentic identity and conditions expressed by Mexican women in art through a mimetic lens and extend that analysis to gendered concerns that have emerged in the past fifty or so years in Mexico and the U.S. Mexico border. Such issues include the pervasive machismo culture and the alarming increase …

Digital Frontiers In Aesthetics: Applying Dewey's Insights To Generative Ai, Malcolm F. Lathrop-Allen

Student Publications

The last few years have seen the emergence of ‘artificially intelligent’ systems en masse, which perform tasks which had previously only been possible by human intelligence. Arguably, the impact of ‘AI 2.0’ has been felt most prominently in the art world — artists have panicked as DALL-E, Midjourney, and other image generation algorithms manufacture pieces which previously required weeks of painstaking labor to create. This project seeks to develop a more critical framework for this novel mode of artistic creation and propose better ways of thinking about, using, and “becoming with” artificial intelligence in the domain of artistry. The first …

On The Manifold Wisdom Of Origami: Reconsidering Origami As A Natural Philosophy, Joseph De Leon Flores

Young Scientists and Philosophers on the Border

No abstract provided.

Does Art Pluralism Lead To Eliminativism?, P.D. Magnus, Christy Mag Uidhir

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Art pluralism is the view that there is no single, correct account of what art is. Instead, art is understood through a plurality of art concepts and with considerations that are different for particular arts. Although avowed pluralists have retained the word “art” in their discussions, it is natural to ask whether the considerations that motivate pluralism should lead us to abandon art talk altogether; that is, should pluralism lead to eliminativism? This paper addresses arguments both for and against this move. We ultimately argue that pluralism allows one to retain the word “art”, if one wants it, but only …

"Fulfil In Beauty My Imperfect Prayer": Mythologization In Santayana's Aesthetics Of Religion, India M. Johnson-Mccauley

Honors College Theses

This thesis addresses George Santayana’s theories of art and religion in the context of turn-of-the-century religious thought and introduces the concept of the mythologization of religion. Santayana, the Spanish-American turn-of-the-century philosopher, poet, and novelist, took a naturalist, pragmatist, and religious non-realist approach to understanding the world that prompted works regarding the nature of art, The Sense of Beauty (1896), and the nature of religion, Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900). Within these two works, Santayana proposes a theory of aesthetics and a theory of religion that seem to function in tandem with each other. According to his theories, art, particularly …

Readings In Western Philosophy For Louisiana Learners, Jeff Mclaughlin, Marco Altamarino (Editor), Ryland Johnson (Editor), Peter Klubek (Editor), Michael Martin (Editor)

Open Educational Resources

It is important for students not only to get an appreciation and understanding of philosophy but also to be exposed to the very words and ideas of those who have shaped our thinking over the centuries. Accordingly, the title of this collection hints at the facts that these readings are from the original sources and that these philosophers were the originators of many of the issues we still discuss today.

Major areas of philosophy covered here are Ethics, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics, Sociopolitical Philosophy, and finally, Aesthetics.

Subjectivity In Circulation: Jean Baudrillard And The Image As Objective Reality, Jacob Crawley

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to examine Jean Baudrillard’s theory of the image in both historical and philosophical terms and propose that his understanding of the image as disconnected from any sort of objective reality is an important starting point for further discussion of the photographic image. This thesis seeks to answer the question – how does Baudrillard’s theory of the photographic image shape our contemporary understanding of images, and what are the implications of his removal of the referent to reality within photographic images on mass culture, society, and the current state of image creation? This paper seeks …

Book Review: Kumar, Ashwani. (Ed.). (2022). Engaging With Meditative Inquiry In Teaching, Learning, And Research: Realizing Transformative Potentials In Diverse Contexts. New York, Ny: Routledge., Giovanni Rossini Phd

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Book Review of following text:

Kumar, Ashwani. (Ed.). (2022). Engaging with Meditative Inquiry in Teaching, Learning, and Research: Realizing Transformative Potentials in Diverse Contexts. New York, NY: Routledge.